Lacy's war

Shortly before he died, Edmund of Lancaster was offered an eleventh-hour shot at redemption. In late April 1296 five citizens of Bordeaux came to the English camp and, in return for £5000 in silver, agreed to secretly open the city gates at dawn two days hence. When the English entered, they would slaughter everyone who was not wearing the badge of St George: this was presumably the red cross against a white field.

La Rochelle

It all went wrong. The plot was discovered, and the five citizens arrested and hanged when they returned to Bordeaux. When the English arrived, it was to find the gates firmly shut against them. After the failure of this last gambit, Edmund went south to Bayonne to die.

As he lay on his deathbed, the people of Bayonne made a remarkable gesture of loyalty. On 14 May, at their request, Edward I declared the community of Bayonne had been united indissolubly to the English crown. If the French conquered Gascony, the Bayonnais would not submit to the King of France in Paris; instead they would fight to the last man, or take to the sea as pirates.

The Bayonnais had motives beyond simple loyalty. When the French war began, in 1294, the town of Bayonne was split between two factions. These were the mariners, led by Pascal de Vielle, and an aristocratic party led by the Manx family. The aristocrats had sided with the French and driven Pascal and his friends into exile. Pascal offered his services to the English, and together they recaptured Bayonne later in the year. The Manx were driven out. As a reward for linking Bayonne forever to the English crown, King Edward granted the mariners all the plum jobs. Pascal was made mayor, castellan and provost, and given access for five years to all the rents and revenues of Bayonne. The smiths of Bayonne, meanwhile, were guaranteed protection against the entry of competing iron manufactures.

Bayonne

There was also recent history to take into account. The Bayonnais were notorious pirates, and had sacked the French coastal town of La Rochelle. By severing all ties with the French government, they could not be prosecuted by Philip le Bel’s lawyers. Thus their show of loyalty was also an insurance policy.

Edward’s most significant appointment turned out to be his wisest one with regard to this war. He appointed a Bayonnais sea-captain, Barran de Sescars, to supreme naval command of the entire Anglo-Gascon fleet. It was largely thanks to Barran, a forgotten individual, that the English held onto Aquitaine for another 150 years.